That lovable know-it-all knucklehead Ernest P. Worrell, (Jim Varney) who is working as a janitor at a local college, meets a history professor named Dr. Abner Melon (Ron James). After discovering an antique metal plate near a construction site, Ernest shows it to the professor who believes that it came from a Revolutionary War cannon called "Goliath." Dr. Melon had previously been ridiculed by his peers for theorizing that the real Crown Jewels of England were stolen during the Revolutionary War and were actually hidden inside the long-lost cannon.